This post has not been edited by the GamesBeat staff. Opinions by GamesBeat community writers do not necessarily reflect those of the staff.
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If you haven't heard, we recently polled the community to find out which Marvel vs. Capcom 3 challengers you were most interested in hearing more about. We got Capcom Community Manager Seth Killian on the line and grilled him on the details of some of your favorite comic-book and video-game superstars. Yesterday saw profiles of the top three Capcom characters, as selected by the Bitmob community: Zero, Dante, and Albert Wesker.
Today's list takes the top three Marvel competitors head on: Killian breaks down the ins and outs of a classic X-Men icon, a scrappy clone, and a certain wise-cracking, gun-toting clown who got far more votes than any other character on either side. Check below to get the full lowdown.
1) Deadpool
13.96% of the community votes
Seth Killian: First off, you win with Deadpool from the moment you pick him. He's got hands down the best lines and zingers in the game, from the prematch face off to his win quotes — as well as some of the best sight-gags — but he's also no slouch at depleting the opponent's lifebar.
Deadpool has got plenty of solid combos, but ultimately, with his limited movement options and his notoriously unreliable teleport, I feel he works best playing a kind of "dynamic keep-away," where you use a combination of his guns and unique projectiles (like his QCF+B [quarter-circle forward plus B] grenades) to drain your opponent's health and harass them into attacking. If you do catch them (perhaps after his forward B overhead attack), you can go into an air combo, end with an air special, and use Katana-rama to pick up the grounded opponent and bounce them off the wall into a relaunch or Hyper Combo.
Deadpool is also a good teammate because it's easy to combo from almost any Hyper Combo into Deadpool's Bangbangbang! He also has a good projectile assist, or for characters that can't hit grounded opponents by themselves, his Katana-rama is a great assist tool to help them extend their combos.
2) X-23
8.74% of the community votes
SK: While she shares Wolverine's genetic material, their move sets have nothing in common. Long-time Logan players should check their experiences at the door. X-23 is MVC3's reigning queen of mixups. She can go high, low, front, or back in the blink of an eye. If your opponent catches on to your rushdown rhythm, hold the buttons down to vary your timing and punish their premature counter. If they somehow continue to block everything, mix in her command grab, which has massive range and speed, and combo them some more after it hits.
Remember, while X-23's combos feature a lot of interesting techniques, they don't hit the hardest, so you're going to need those mixups to kill off your opponent. She can also struggle getting close to zoning and keep-away characters. Superjump and use her QCF+B [quarter-circle forward plus B] to fly toward them from a safer height, or be sure to pick good projectile assists like Arthur's daggers or Doom's Photon Beam to help her fight her way through the projectile traffic.
Finally, X-23 has a truly killer Level 3 Hyper Combo: It not only turns her invisible, it's also an unblockable grab that works in the air or on the ground. Against characters that are less mobile in the air, let them jump, predict where they're heading, and then fire up your Level 3, landing them in world of hurt.
3) Phoenix
8.46% of the community votes
SK: If MVC3 were poker, picking Phoenix would be the equivalent of saying "I'm all in." She combines some of the worst stamina with one of the scariest offensive potentials in the entire roster. As "regular" Phoenix, an eight-way Air Dash and an instant teleport give her extreme mobility, allowing her to rush down her opponents. The C version of her air fireball moves slowly, but it will follow your opponent wherever they go, making it a perfect way to initiate her high-low rush.
All those chances to attack with good, basic combos and the excellent utility of her Hyper Combo are great, but to take advantage of her full offensive potential, you'll want to use her Dark Phoenix form. In order to transform into Dark Phoenix, Phoenix must get KO'd with all 5 hyper meters in reserve. If she gets KO'd without 5 meters, she'll be gone just like any other character, so don't start your fights with her. Keep her out of the action as much as possible until another teammate has built up the hyper meter enough to let her transform.
Dark Phoenix gets hit even harder and her health drains automatically, but while she's alive, she's a holy terror, with powered-up versions of all of Phoenix's moves. She shoots space-controlling fireballs everywhere just by tapping normal attacks. Surviving as Dark Phoenix means mastering her Healing Field Hyper Combo (you gain life anytime someone is near you), but mostly, staying alive requires not getting hit.
P.S. Don't forget to check out yesterday's Capcom roundup. Once again, apologies that the profiles aren't as expansive as originally stated. Also, we'd like to give a big thanks to everyone who voted in the initial poll, and of course, Seth Killian over at Capcom. Thanks everyone!